Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy says everyone, including Macomb County residents, should push officials to follow through on investigating criminal cases from thousands of old rape kits in Detroit and nationwide.

Processing of DNA from 1,600 of the more than 11,000 kits in Detroit has revealed some 500 “hits” on the national DNA network indicating suspects had prior contact with the law, Worthy told a crowd Thursday at Turning Point’s Spirit of Leadership luncheon in Chesterfield Township.

The hits revealed 127 serial rapists and another 342 multiple criminal offenders, and 26 unknown dual offenders in Michigan and 23 other states, based on matches on the nationwide DNA network, she said.

“We know rapists don’t stop at Eight Mile Road,” Worthy said. “We know they don’t stop at the Wayne County border. We know they don’t even stop at the Michigan border. So if you don’t care about this because it’s a Detroit problem, you might want to hear about it because the rapist is going to come to you, too.

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“And they don’t just rape. The break into your house and rape. They carjack and rape. They rape and they kill, and they rob and they rape.”

The 11,341 untested kits for cases up to 30 years old were discovered in August 2009 in an abandoned Detroit police warehouse.

Detroit is only one of many areas where such shocking discoveries have been made. The Rape Kit Action Project, estimates there are 400,000 untested kits nationally, including 12,000 in Memphis, Tenn., and 16,000 in the state of Texas, according to published reports.

The number of kits and hits in Detroit alone “probably shocked a lot of people” at the luncheon attended by more than 400, mostly women, said Turning Point development director Lynn Wilhelm.

“It is pretty astounding, but after working at Turning Point, nothing really surprises me,” Wilhelm said. “It was a good lesson for everybody to learn about what’s going on.”

Worthy said she believed at the time the kits’ discovery that officials in Detroit, Wayne County and the state would make it a priority to help her get the kits tested.

After she said she got virtually little aid from Wayne County officials or cash-strapped Detroit, Gov. Rick Snyder and Attorney General Bill Schuette pushed for $4 million in state funds that were OK’d last fall and are being used to test the remaining 9,000-plus kits.

But that testing has just started, and Worthy noted that testing only completes half the job. The cases must be investigated, and she is now trying to gain funding of $2 million to $2.5 million per year for five years to fund a unit to probe the remaining cases.

She criticized Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano for reduced funding to her office that has prompted an acrimonious political and legal battle between them. Worthy has lost nearly half of her staff, about 85 people, most of them assistant prosecutors, many of whom go to other prosecuting attorney offices such as Macomb.

“I’m the only prosecutor in the country who has to go around to different cities across the country and beg for money to prosecute sexual assault because the county won’t fund a dime for this whole project,” she said.

But Ficano’s spokeswoman, June West, said Thursday that Worthy was given a $4.5 million budget increase, about 10 percent, for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1.

“It’s at her discretion in how she spends it,” West said. “Public safety is at the top of our priority list.”

The increase followed two years of cuts that resulted in 28 percent less funding, according to Worthy. To offset the cuts, Worthy has raised $12 million in grants and donations, according to a published report.

Although one case’s convictions came prior to the discovery, the most notorious case that could have been prevented by timely rape-kit testing involved Shelly Andre Brooks, who raped and killed eight woman, five of them following an August 2002 rape in which the assailant’s DNA collected from the 19-year-old female victim, she said. He was caught in 2006 and convicted in 2007.

Macomb County Prosecutor Eric Smith praised Worthy for her efforts.

“Kym Worthy did not create the problem but she is solving it one case at a time,” he said.

Smith said he cannot fathom a similar situation taking place in Macomb County. But when the discovery was revealed, he called every police department in the county. None reported having any untested kits that had not been sent to the state crime lab, he said.

He agreed with Worthy’s premise that everyone should be concerned.

“We have cross-over crime (with Wayne County) all the time,” Smith said. “It’s not like criminals are stopped at the borders. When you have this many untested rape kits, that leaves these criminals out on the prowl.”

Maria Walsh, 46, of Clinton Township, who attended the luncheon as a friend’s guest, called Worthy a “bad ass,” and told her so afterward.

“I admire her for her work,” Walsh said. “She’s not afraid to stand up and be the one to say what needs to be said.”

Turning Point is the county’s primary nonprofit agency that serves victims of domestic violence and sexual assault.